Faculty to discuss rules for priority registration
By: Sergio Tovar, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: University
A proposal that would create guidelines for priority course registration will be presented at today's Faculty Council meeting.
Priority registration allows certain students to register before their classmates if they have special needs or if their activities preclude them from taking class at certain times.
"The University doesn't really have an official priority registration system," University Registrar Alice Poehls said.
Right now, deans can authorize students to register earlier than their peers, but no real guidelines exist.
Steven Reznick, chairman of the priority registration task force and director of the developmental psychology program, said the proposal would set up formal priorities in the system so that there is order to the priority approval plan.
"The proposal is a way to have priority registration in a way that is open and based on accountability and transparency," Reznick said.
The plan calls for officials to submit a list of students and a reason why they should be granted priority registration.
Individual students cannot apply for themselves.
A priority registration advisory committee, which the proposal would establish to monitor the system's progress, would be in charge of approving these students.
The committee, which will be assembled by the registrar, will decide whether the priority registration period should continue, be modified or be dropped.
Several student groups will feel the impact of this proposal. But student athletes make up the largest group affected.
"Their practice schedule entails so many hours that it is very hard for those students to assemble a workable schedule," Reznick said.
He added that if a team has morning practices, athletes sign up for afternoon classes.
Without priority registration, Reznick said, this method would not always be feasible.
Education students, who have to teach during their senior spring semester, and nursing students, who spend a lot of time in clinical rotations to receive their licenses, are also mentioned in the proposal.
Students who have a disability also would be eligible for priority registration.
Part of the proposal reserves only 25 percent of course spots for priority so as not to unfairly limit other students' class availability.
Both the faculty athletics committee and the educational policy committee unanimously approved the plan this week.
Joe Templeton, chairman of the Faculty Council, said that while the council will hear a presentation on the proposal, there will not be enough time to take action on the issue at today's meeting.
"It will either be discussed in December or we will plan a future meeting between now and then," Templeton said.
Reznick expects the proposal to go up for approval during the council's Dec. 7 meeting.
If it passes, officials expect that a four-year trial period will begin with the fall 2008 registration.
"You won't know until you've tried it, but if it doesn't, you don't want it to continue," Reznick said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
ATTEND THE FACULTY COUNCIL
Time: 3 p.m. today
Location: Hitchcock Multipurpose Room at Sonja Haynes Stone Center
Info: www.unc.edu/faculty/faccoun/
Priority registration allows certain students to register before their classmates if they have special needs or if their activities preclude them from taking class at certain times.
"The University doesn't really have an official priority registration system," University Registrar Alice Poehls said.
Right now, deans can authorize students to register earlier than their peers, but no real guidelines exist.
Steven Reznick, chairman of the priority registration task force and director of the developmental psychology program, said the proposal would set up formal priorities in the system so that there is order to the priority approval plan.
"The proposal is a way to have priority registration in a way that is open and based on accountability and transparency," Reznick said.
The plan calls for officials to submit a list of students and a reason why they should be granted priority registration.
Individual students cannot apply for themselves.
A priority registration advisory committee, which the proposal would establish to monitor the system's progress, would be in charge of approving these students.
The committee, which will be assembled by the registrar, will decide whether the priority registration period should continue, be modified or be dropped.
Several student groups will feel the impact of this proposal. But student athletes make up the largest group affected.
"Their practice schedule entails so many hours that it is very hard for those students to assemble a workable schedule," Reznick said.
He added that if a team has morning practices, athletes sign up for afternoon classes.
Without priority registration, Reznick said, this method would not always be feasible.
Education students, who have to teach during their senior spring semester, and nursing students, who spend a lot of time in clinical rotations to receive their licenses, are also mentioned in the proposal.
Students who have a disability also would be eligible for priority registration.
Part of the proposal reserves only 25 percent of course spots for priority so as not to unfairly limit other students' class availability.
Both the faculty athletics committee and the educational policy committee unanimously approved the plan this week.
Joe Templeton, chairman of the Faculty Council, said that while the council will hear a presentation on the proposal, there will not be enough time to take action on the issue at today's meeting.
"It will either be discussed in December or we will plan a future meeting between now and then," Templeton said.
Reznick expects the proposal to go up for approval during the council's Dec. 7 meeting.
If it passes, officials expect that a four-year trial period will begin with the fall 2008 registration.
"You won't know until you've tried it, but if it doesn't, you don't want it to continue," Reznick said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
ATTEND THE FACULTY COUNCIL
Time: 3 p.m. today
Location: Hitchcock Multipurpose Room at Sonja Haynes Stone Center
Info: www.unc.edu/faculty/faccoun/
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